asked to leave not redundant

[geoff1057]

a friend of mine has been working for the same company for 7 years and has a contract, they have approached her to work nights. she has refused .the company have asked her to leave and as a goodwill gesture offered to pay her 6 weeks wages . they say they are not however making her redundant. where does she stand

[buildersmate]

We need more information.
1) Is she the only one doing this job on dayshift now?
2) Is she the only one in the company being asked to move to nightshift?
3) What reason did the company offer for wanting to modify her contract of employment?
Armed with this information, we may be able to give a better quality answer as to whether this is a redundancy situation or not.

[geoff1057]

from what i gather, they have already dismissed her but, saying the job is no longer there.company keep saying she has not been made redundant .my neice who also works there, says that they will leave it for a couple of weeks then set someone else on doing same job on the same shift .this is how they get rid of people if they suddenly fall out of favour with management. they have done this many times.they ignore employment laws,but no one does anything about it

[geoff1057]

yes she is only one being asked to do this. and they have given NO reason. company employs about 20 staff

[buildersmate]

OK if she already been dismissed the deed is done.
Her next port of call should be CAB, who may be able to put her onto a solicitor for a short free consultation.
Her route forward now is likely to be a claim for unfair dismissal at an Employment Tribunal. This may have the option of demanding her original job back (or receiving damages if they won't do it).
If she has at least 7 years continuous service, giving 6 weeks wages as a goodwill gesture is a joke. Under statutory notice periods, she would have been entitled to 7 weeks pay in lieu of notice anyway - nothing goodwill about that - its the law. And that is assuming that the dismissal was 'fair' in a legal sense in the first place (which may first para is doubting)

[geoff1057]

Spoke to my friend last night ,after showing your reply. they have now given her ,2 weeks lieu pay ,plus 1weeks pay for every year she has worked. but no reason for dismissing ,.the fact that they say they are not making her redundant,?? shows that the job is still there but they may be employing someone else in her position after nearly 7 years service. should she still go ahead with action against the company

[buildersmate]

Not for me to provide legal advice, I'm afraid. But let me explain the options.
1) Do nothing. Some employers expect employees to do nothing because they think the employee does not understand the law or it will be too difficult, or involve expensive lawyers.
2) Pursue the case through an Employment Tribunal. This is relatively simple, a tribunal is a convened body of three people who interpret and decide upon the case based on the law. If they find in favour of the employee, they have the power to award damages, and (sometimes) to order the employer to re-employ. If the employer still won't do it, they can awrds more damages.
There are six 'fair' reasons for dismissal. Please understand that I mean 'fair' in the sense of legally fair - not whether it is just or not. The six reasons are:
Conduct
Capability
Redundancy
A statutory reason
Retirement of employee
Some other substantive reason
The most commonly used ones by an employer for dismissal are the first and third ones.
Conduct is easy to understand - you did something to break the company rules.
Redundancy can be confusing and is used sometimes by an employer as a 'cop out' to get rid of difficult staff. But your friends employer is saying she is not made redundant.
I won't explain the rest - she can read about them here: -
http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/employment/emp loyment-legislation/employment-guidance/page30 887.html#When_is_a_dismissal_fair_or_unfair_
From what you have said, this employer appears not to be acting in a fair manner. Some do it out of ignorance, some because they simply believe they will get away with it. If she wishes to pursue this, suggest the CAB in the first instance. It depends what she wa

[buildersmate]

The useless software that runs AB has cut off my answer at 2000 words without warning me it was over it.
Last 2 sentences should say
It depends what she wants out of it. She has 3 months from date of dismissal to register a claim for unfair dismissal.

[geoff1057]

will pass on this invaluable information, i ,and iam sure my friend would like to thank you for the info and time you have given, in answering my question ,, i think she has been treated shabbily and unfairly by her ex employer, and hope she takes this all the way, too many employees just cant be bothered to do anything, as you say. thank you again